Fool's Gold
by orangesunset12
Summary: Dick and Jason go treasure hunting.


Jason huffed as he tramped through the forest, twigs snapping underfoot. The air was hot and sticky with spring's arrival, and yet the whole mood of the day felt much more like summer.

"Remind me again why I'm doing this."

Dick threw a glance over his shoulder and flashed a smile. At least he seemed to be having fun- he had taken up a branch and was now whacking weeds out of the way, clearing them out of his path so they could smack Jason in the face later.

"You lost the bet," Dick sing-songed much too cheerily. "Besides, you wanted to spend time with your favourite brother."

"I don't see Tim anywhere around here."

"Hey!" Dick let out a dramatic gasp, spinning around so Jason could take in the full Dick-Grayson-Drama-Queen experience.

"What? Kid's the only one that gives me space. I respect that."

"Bruce gives you space."

"I don't need Bruce's space. Bruce's space stinks."

Dick turned back around, whacking the branches with fervour. "I give you space, too."

"Yeah right. The bet only started cause you broke into my house and hovered over me while I slept."

"You make it sound creepier than it was! I was simply waiting for you to wake up, that's all."

"Dick, normal people don't do that. They call or something."

"Oh come on, Jay." He could practically hear Dick rolling his eyes. "With you, it's always 50-50 whether you pick up or not."

"Hey, don't blame your creepiness on me. You know sometimes I'm too busy to pick up your calls, right?"

"You must be busy all the time then."

Jason scowled. He was so not doing this right now, not today of all days, not when he was hot and tired and just wanted to get it over with.

"I came with you today, didn't I? On this useless trek."

"It's not a trek, it's a treasure hunt."

"Oh right, sorry, a treasure hunt," Jason deadpanned. "A time capsule we buried years ago sure is a treasure in the modern-day stock market."

"It's a treasure to me." Dick almost sounded wistful. "Besides, I wanna see whether the old me knew I would turn out so handsome and successful."

"Say it as many times as you want, it doesn't get more true."

"What, you don't think this bod is hot?" Dick stopped walking for a moment to pose (rather unflatteringly) with his butt.

"Please stop," Jason groaned. "I already died once."

"You're such a meanie," Dick pouted, using his branch to pull back a stray bough.

"How mature of you, Dick. Really living up to your-"

Jason suddenly stumbled backwards, reeling from the force of the bough smacking him in the face. He felt his eyes water.

"What the hell? You did that on purpose!"

Dick turned around, eyes shining with pure innocence.

"On purpose? I would never! Are you accusing me of deliberately hurting my precious baby brother?"

"I'll show you who's precious-!" He dove towards Dick, hurling them both towards the ground. A good 5-minute wrestle later, he had his older brother pinned to the floor, his knee on Dick's back. Dick, however, just laughed.

"Having fun yet?"

"You wish," Jason muttered, but he couldn't help the smile growing on his face.

* * *

The clearing was just as Jason remembered it- green. There wasn't much else to say about it, really, besides the occasional candy wrapper strewn around the grass. On the map that he and Dick had drawn (god, Jason doesn't remember ever being so young as to draw a treasure map), the clearing had been marked with a green circle and a smiley face.

'Happy Clearing', Dick had named it, because he was awful at naming things.

He remembered that first time coming here, sun bright and hot, leaning on Bruce's shoulder and telling him a made-up story of mermaids and fishes and dragons. Bruce had listened intently, and at one point he'd draped an arm around Jason, holding him in a soft embrace. Jason had held on too, much too tightly, as if he would disappear into nothing if he let go.

Or maybe it hadn't been like that. Maybe the story wasn't about mermaids or dragons, but was about his mother, about his third birthday when she'd forgotten to bake a cake so she had taken him out for a rare treat to the bakery. And Bruce had listened as well as he could, but it wasn't an easy story to listen to, because it didn't have a happy ending. And there was not much sun because it was winter. And there was no embrace.

Jason supposed it didn't matter which one was true. They were only memories, anyway.

"Lost in thought, little wing?"

He blinked, pulled back to reality by the sound of Dick's voice. The sun was still continuing its relentless efforts to burn Jason alive, and the grass was wet with dew. Jason sat back on the picnic blanket and took a bite out of his sandwich.

"I haven't been to this place since forever," he said, looking up at the sky.

"Me neither. Never the time, you know?"

"Yeah. I guess I never really wanted to come here too."

Dick cocked his head. "You never wanted to find our treasure?"

"First of all, it's not treasure, it's just a bunch of mouldy letters and action figures. Secondly, I had completely forgotten about it until you broke into my apartment and waved that butt ugly map in my face."

"Luckily I remembered it then," Dick grinned. "It's crazy that we actually survived for this long to open it."

"Survived is probably the wrong word to use, considering we're both zombies here."

"I was dead for like one second, okay? It was less 'dead' and more 'brief nap'."

"Dead is dead, Dick. Besides, it was bound to happen sooner or later, like it does to all Robins."

Dick made this weird pained sound that Jason didn't like at all. "It's really not a coincidence, is it? I made... I made something that killed you."

"It wasn't your fault."

"If it wasn't mine, then whose was it? Bruce?"

"It- it wasn't his fault, either." Jason sighed and put his sandwich down. "Look, blaming anybody won't change what happened, no matter how much I wish it did. And... this isn't exactly something I wanna talk about today. Just know that, even during that time when I was all I'm-gonna-murder-Bruce, I never blamed you for what happened. Not even once."

Silence lapsed as Dick seemed to ponder the words, weighing its truth with an invisible scale. But if there's one thing Jason hated, it was lying. He had made sure that Bruce had known it was him wreaking havoc, because what was the point of the whole thing if Bruce didn't know who he was? Secrecy- that was Batman's thing, and to some extent, it was Nightwing's as well. But that had never been what he was about.

Dick reached over and began ruffling Jason's hair, much to his displeasure.

"I'm not a dog, Dick," he complained, swatting at his hand.

"Aw, you sound just like Dami."

"I would sound more like him if I was threatening to kill you and your whole family."

Dick chuckled. "He's grown a lot, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, from actually killing people to threatening to kill people. Such maturity."

"You've grown, too," Dick marvelled. "I- I didn't quite notice how much until just now."

Jason blushed slightly. "Yeah, well, you haven't really. Just the same annoying goofball as you've always been."

"Hey, it just means I'm young at heart."

"Right," Jason scoffed. He looked at the clouds. "Hey, shouldn't we get going now?"

Dick took a look at his watch and took out the map. "Okay, so we're here at the Happy Clearing-"

"Stupid name."

"-And we've gotta head East to this lake," Dick continued. "The treasure should be right under a big oak tree."

"A big oak tree?" Jason's eyes gleamed. " _The_ big oak tree?"

Dick grinned. "So you do remember."

"How could I forget? I can't believe Bruce even tried scaling that thing, he was like twice your size and half as flexible."

"Oh, and don't forget he was wearing those weird baggy shorts."

Jason nearly snorted lemonade out of his nose. It was a memory that he'd nearly forgotten- a camping trip with him, Dick, and Bruce. It was a rare moment of stability in their relationships, before Jason had messed up his life and everyone else's, and after Dick had worked off his initial hostility. Dick had scaled an oak tree and refused to come down (Jason remembered thinking how the hell Dick could be scary if he was so immature), so Bruce had attempted to climb after him. Of course, it hadn't ended well- not for Bruce anyway- and the trip had had to be cancelled due to Bruce's broken arm.

But this memory did have a happy ending. They had gone home, dejected and (in Jason's case) somewhat pissed, and Bruce must've felt guilty because the next day they went to the carnival and ate ice cream and rode rollercoasters and did things that Alfred would never approve of.

And that had been the last time they had been together, before the warehouse and the Joker and the bomb. The one sliver of time where he could truly say he was happy.

"Jay?" Dick called, picking up the basket. "You coming or what?"

Jason took one last look at the clearing.

"Yeah," he replied. "Coming."

* * *

"Maybe it's the wrong place."

Dick frowned, looking up at the sky where dark clouds were starting to gather. He looked back down at the hole.

"No, this is the tree. This is the right place."

Jason ran a hand through his hair. They had been digging for quite some time now, and the sun was dipping low over the trees. Barely any sunlight broke through the canopy.

"Look," Jason said, "maybe the map was wrong, or maybe we got lost-"

"This is the right place." Dick sighed in frustration. "I remember this, Jason, it was right here."

He glanced one last time at the sky and then started digging again, a methodical motion of down and up. Jason leaned against the tree and watched as the dirt pile behind Dick grew higher and higher.

To be honest, Jason was indifferent about finding the capsule. Sure, it would be fun to rediscover what he'd been like when he was young, but a few letters and pictures really didn't excite him too much. He'd already reminisced far too much today.

Besides, he didn't need any more reminders of how much lighter and better and happier the old Jason had been, and how far away that was now.

He picked at the bark of the oak tree. "It's getting dark, Dick. Maybe we should get going."

"No, I swear it's right here, we probably buried it really deep-"

A thunder clap resounded from somewhere west, and a drizzle of rain began descending from the heavens. They both watched as water splatted into the hole, mixing with the dirt to create a soggy mud.

Dick sighed. He put down the shovel and sat on the ground, ignoring the soil and the rain.

"Dick," Jason said.

Dick gave him a half-smile. "It's alright, Jason. It was probably all lame stuff anyway."

Brushing the dirt off his shoulder, Jason walked over to Dick and sat down next to him, mentally cursing the ruining of his jeans. He looked over at the hole.

It may not have meant anything to him, but it sure did mean something to Dick. And he knew what it felt like to wait so long, to travel so far only to realise your destination was gone.

"You know, I remember one of the things I put in there."

Dick shot him a surprised look. "You do?"

"Yeah. Remember that time when you bought that special taco or whatever, and Bruce ate it?"

"Oh god, don't remind me. I was mad at him for a month."

"Yeah, well, he may not have actually eaten it..."

"You didn't."

Jason smiled sheepishly. "Well, at least I felt guilty about it. Which is why I put a taco in the time capsule."

"You what?!"

"Okay, in hindsight it didn't make much sense, but it was a nice gesture!"

"Jason, you were going to make me eat a decade-old taco? Is this revenge for something I did to you?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time, okay? I put a lot of effort into it!"

Dick laughed and shook his head. "You were a real special kid, you know that?"

"Oh come on, surely you put something stupid in there as well."

He thought about it. "Well, I only really remember one thing I put in there."

"What is it?"

"Remember when you told me you'd never been to a concert before?"

Jason pictured, clear as crystal, Dick's horrified face when he had told him. "Yep, you wouldn't stop whining about it for days."

"It's a rite of passage, Jay! Anyway, I made a promise to you that day that I would take you to one. But, well... that didn't happen, obviously."

They were treading on fragile ground now, but Jason didn't interrupt. Some things needed to be said, just to release it from your chest and let the world deal with it instead.

"I died, right? Before you got the chance."

"No, you don't understand." He took a breath, and through the rain Jason suddenly realised that Dick was crying. "I had bought the tickets already, before you- before you left. I was going to surprise you. So I was trying to call you on that day, but you had gone to Ethiopia, and I thought, 'maybe I should try to find him, maybe I should go to Ethiopia too'. But I didn't. And then- and then-"

Now he was crying so hard he couldn't speak. The rain grew from a drizzle to a shower, verging on a downpour. Jason didn't know what to do with his hands or his mouth, so he just sat there and leaned against Dick, trying to say with his body that he was here and it was alright and it was nobody's fault. Dick took a few shuddering breaths before he regained some sense of composure.

"He didn't tell me," Dick continued. "He didn't tell me you were dead. I don't- I don't understand, you were dead and Bruce didn't tell me so I kept trying to call you, I was calling and calling and calling. I thought you were mad at me, Jason. I couldn't understand anything. So when I found out, I couldn't believe it. I had been waiting for someone who was dead. You were dead, Jason, you were-"

"Stop." Jason stared hard at the oak tree. "Just stop."

"But... you said you didn't blame me, but if I had gone to find you-"

"I don't wanna hear it. We could've all done something differently. Bruce could've tried harder to get to me, my mom could've not been such a jerk, I could've not been so reckless, the Joker could've not been so evil- it doesn't matter anymore. This is what happened. And, if you haven't noticed, Dick, I'm alive."

Dick wiped his tears and let out a tired laugh. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to bring this up today, but it's kinda hard not to."

"It's not the worst thing I ever heard. Far from it, actually."

"I just needed to say it. After I found out, I... well, obviously I didn't go to that concert. I went back here and I buried them in our time capsule. I didn't open anything... and maybe I smelled a little bit of rotting taco..." They both chuckled. "You know, little wing, I come back here every year."

Jason raised his eyebrow. "You do?"

"Yeah, but I never had the courage to dig it up again. With you here, though... I was gonna do it. Some parts of the past don't feel real, and I wanted to prove to myself with those tickets that I had tried, that I had been a good brother. But it's gone. Like it never existed. Like- ow!" Dick rubbed the spot where Jason had flicked him. "What did you do that for?"

"That's for being an idiot," Jason explained flatly. "I can't believe you're seriously so upset about concert tickets."

"It's not just about that-"

"I know, but you don't need them to prove you're a good brother. When I came back, I promised myself I would never rejoin this family again. And..." he gestured to the rain and the empty hole. "Look at me now. Sitting with my favourite brother on the muddy ground and ruining my favourite pair of jeans."

"Favourite brother," Dick teased.

"Sorry. Favourite _older_ brother."

"I'm still taking it."

Jason shook his head. "Man, the rain is really coming down now."

"Yeah, we should go."

"We should."

But they sat there, leaning against each other, as the rain continued to lash down on the ground. The hole was completely filled up now, looking like just another puddle. For the first time, Jason noticed the flowers on the ground.

"Hey Dick?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For not leaving me alone today."

Dick shrugged, smiling. "You lost the bet."

"Yeah, but, I know I'm not exactly the easiest person to be around. Everyone else just leaves me alone when I ask them to, but you... Don't get me wrong, it's the absolute worst thing about you. But sometimes... sometimes it's nice."

"Like now?"

"Like now."

Jason didn't like to be reminded of the past, because it reminded him of something he could never get back, but sometimes it also made him feel good and warm inside. He supposed that, like brothers, you just had to take the good and the bad and hope the good was stronger.

"We should get Tim, Dami and Cass to do one, don't you think?"

"What, you mean get them to bury a time capsule?"

"Yeah." Dick grinned. "It'd be fun, wouldn't it? And hopefully theirs won't just disappear into thin air."

"Oh sure, have the Replacement and the Demon Brat trek through a forest together. You know only Cass will make it out of there alive."

"She'll control them. Besides, we could come along too. We could bury new things, and come back when we're parents or grandparents or something."

"Assuming we're still alive."

"But that's what a time capsule is, isn't it? A promise to come back here in the future. A promise to stay alive."

"Promises don't always work out. You know that."

"Sometimes they do." Dick shot Jason a smirk. "You know, there's a concert next Friday. We could get front row seats."

"You're paying, right?"

"Of course I am. Or, more accurately, Bruce is. So, you in?"

Jason grinned. "I'm in."

* * *

 **Hi guys, I'm back! Thankfully I wasn't gone as long this time. Just as a note, my DC continuity knowledge is not that good, and sometimes I make stuff up that I think fits in with the story I'm writing, so if it doesn't fit in with the comics canon don't worry. Just think of it as an AU if you really like your canon stuff. As always, if you enjoyed it, please like/follow/review! Also check out some other stories (my personal favourites being Circumstance and The Five Stages Of You, coincidentally some of my least popular stories but whatever).**

 **Hope everyone is having a great day, and see you (hopefully) soon!**


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